The Exalt [Cultivation Fantasy]

Her enraged roar echoed to his side of the battle, and Oscar couldn't help but smile, gladdened to hear her so lively and well. Surely, she suffered for far longer than he had under the influence of Lelith's spell, but her invigorated cry dispelled all of his unease. At last, the final piece toward their victory had been placed on the board. Lelith closed in, crossing her scythes in full swing with her wings jabbing forward. Oscar firmed his footing, unwilling to back down, and punched, linking with Demon's burning thrust and Erden's brutish charge, their attacks merging in a devastating whole.

He felt a warm touch, a slight tap that pushed and spurred him onward, on his back. Ein gushed in and surged toward his dwindling reserves, a joyous cry resounding from his spinning core. From the corner of his eyes, he spotted two pages of shining parchment unfurling on Demon's and Erden's backs, surging a bright Ein in them that gave them a slight glow. Their merged attack swelled and pushed on, carrying the burst of Ein supplied by Avril. Lelith's hands slowly pulled back, giving in inch by inch as her knees began to buckle. It was working.

The ground, laden with the deep scars of their previous exchanges, shuddered, the cracks spreading past the edges and joining the ones damaging the walls. A ripple of dust and stone expanded, and everything began to sink, starting from the center. Oscar lifted off and retreated up, facing an avalanche of rocks as the walls closed in, falling apart. It all fell to the floor below, piling atop one another in a mountain of ruins, chunks of crystals, gems, and gold glittering in the dust. Somewhere in there, Lelith was buried, but he breathed in and took a moment to recover some Ein, a rare opportunity he couldn't squander.

A radiant figure floated beside him, grabbing his hand. Oscar turned and stiffened, stunned by Avril's new appearance, owing to her forceful yet successful complete Integration. She wore a fine dress of woven parchments of scrolls as if someone had unfurled one lengthy scroll and sewn it into the shape of a dress. It reached up to her shoulders and down her arms, ending in long, wide sleeves, her hand gripping the white staff on which a scroll adorned the tip. It was a fair dress for a fair lady, not an inch of skin shown. His eyes fixated on the long rolls of parchment extending from her back, resembling a pair of wings. Words scribbled and filled the spaces of every visible parchment in neat and small handwriting, her handwriting.

What worried him most was how she glowered at the rubble with a cold gaze, the same kind he had seen on her multiple times in the past, as if a sudden shift occurred in her mind and a strange cruelness remained. Before, she had torn an enemy apart limb by limb and carved his entrails out. While he considered snapping her out of this state as he had always done before, he decided against it today. Simply put, it wasn't right. He shouldn't be the only one enraged, feeling like tearing the heart out of his enemies. If anyone could share the violence and emotion surging in his heart, it was her.

An eerie ring chirped out, a sharp glint crossing the mountain of rubble, followed by a cacophony of these rings and the sparkling of dozens more glints. He realized it was Lelith cutting her way out, and soon enough, the rubble clattered down in the size of pebbles, cut finely in uniform shapes. Lelith floated out of the easy pile and bobbed her head to the sides as if shaking off the dust out of her ears. Her indifferent gaze brushed past Serit, Oscar, and Avila and landed on Avril.

"Slave. What are you doing? Be a good girl and stay back. Disobedience is not tolerated in my house." Lelith wagged her finger, beckoning Avril to comply. It was a motion that Avila described to him earlier, one that made Avril behave oddly and follow Lelith's whims. Oscar smirked and didn't look at Avril, trusting in the will that broke herself free of the foul spell.

"I am Avril Terr. Not Slave. Not Pet. Not Plaything. I am not yours, nor will I ever be. Today…you will die." Avril replied in a chilling tone and raised her staff, the words on the unfurling scroll glowing as did the ones on her dress. Branches, roots, and vines grew and entangled, intertwining like rope and forming shapes. Before long, a giant of brambles roared and dove straight down. Clad in thick bark, the giant reached for Lelith, exposing the thorns on every inch of its palms, and breathed out clouds of purple pollen, covering the bottom half of the now-combined halls. It bore a single word on its forehead: Giant.

Lelith waved her hand, chains rattling and zipping forward at her call. The forest giant roared and split apart back into the individual spells that formed them, all converging on Lelith. Vines lashed at her, roots coiled and entangled her feet, and sharp branches grew and grew, intent on skewering Lelith on every inch. The pollen clumped and stuck to her wings and limbs while forcing themselves up her nostrils. Her expression lacked any change as she cut and slashed, an easy task for the Grade Nine to sever all of Avril's spells, but the slight amount of effort needed finally broke the limit.

The glowing Ancestral Mark on her forehead, the visage of a runic crown, vanished. Oscar delved in and gritted his teeth. The moment he had been waiting. His scrutinizing gaze, honed by years of forging weaponry and great armaments, noticed the slight, barely counting as a change, wane in the sharp gleam along the edges of Lelith's scythes, dress, and wings. Serit somehow reached the bottom a while ago and dashed, circling Lelith at the farthest distance. His traps of darkness sprang forth, wreaking chaos around her. Dark shrouds shuffled in and out in a confusing, distracting manner, and swamps of darkness bubbled under her feet.

Avila matched her husband's pace, circling the opposite direction while staying above, shooting powerful arrows past the dark shrouds right when they shifted, blocking sight of her attacks until the last moment. A few landed on Lelith, bursting in small yet fierce explosions. Oscar dropped to the bottom and engaged her in melee, bashing his armored right fist onto her wing. The paths of her scythes swings became shorter and faster, more focused on a few feet from her body rather than the great distance they crossed before. The clangs of her strikes clashing against his, Demon's, and Erden's resounded in rapid beats.

Avril couldn't hold back anymore and joined him in the fray, the words on her entire figure shining again and creating an arm that floated by her shoulder, formed by the merging of her spells. She shot the arm forward, marked by a shining word that represented its form: Arm. It bashed right on Lelith's scythe and untangled into tendrils of thorny vines, exposing her to dense pollen. Somehow, she brushed off the strike and swung hard, driving the blade toward Oscar's side. Another one of Avril's merged spells dove in. It was shaped into a shield of thick bark. As the scythe penetrated the shield with ease, it swirled and reached roots down to the ground, dragging the scythe off course.

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Strangely, Oscar knew already Avril's spell would come at that moment and readied his fist, spinning to build momentum and Reis, and countered, blowing Lelith's arm back. He could see from her perspective, seeing himself in her sight. Her next thought and idea instantly reached him, and she appeared to know his, a silent confirmation answering back in his mind. 'This is…Resonance.' Oscar flipped and dug his toe under Avril's heel, lifting her off the ground in one kick to dodge Lelith's swift retaliation and matched the deadly strike with another fist. In perfect sync, Avril had already planted roots as ropes attached to her staff and landed near Erden, pulling hard together with the boost Oscar had given her. The roots emerged and kept Lelith off-balance.

Oscar and Demon attempted another killing blow, but Lelith expanded her wings and spun, cutting herself free and halting them in place. Without even looking up, she waved her scythe behind her, deflecting the dozens of arrows and spells Avila fired. Her indifferent glare swept across all of them, and she exhaled a short breath and firmed her stance, an open one that welcomed any attacks, yet Oscar could tell from a glance that forcing her into another disadvantageous position would be quite tasking. Her feet planted on the ground like roots, her legs firm like the trunks of a great tree.

'Spear.' Avril's next thought transmitted to Oscar's mind instantly. Her Integration allowed her to use every spell in her arsenal and combine them into a form pertaining to the word she wrote on it. The details of how the spell worked depended on the power of her imagination and the effects of her spells. Unlike when he merged his spells of the same capability and type, she could combine completely unrelated spells together, such as the giant and the shield. Using the form of a spear, her spells entangled into a great weapon fit for a giant, flowers swirling from the tip and down its shaft of intertwined trunks.

The spear landed on Lelith, parted by a single swipe, but that was the trap. Oscar rushed in as the petals stabbed toward Lelith, forcing several more hasty swings out of her. The two halves of her spear reattached and bound her in the middle. Her wings had been distracted by having to cut her free, and Oscar closed in. Demon slashed away at the threads coiling the air around Lelith in a protective layer. Oscar punched, and Lelith matched him, diverting his fist with a nudge from the pommel of her scythe. A crack formed along his knuckles, and he clenched harder, ignoring it. Was his wrath only worth this much? He could only form an incomplete Integration, and even with the aid of everyone, he only fought her to a standstill.

'Give in. Give in. Give in!' Oscar roared in the violent seas of his thoughts. Parts of his armor flaked off and dispersed back into flimsy Eirin. His time limit was fast approaching, and he hadn't broken through Lelith's defense. She had not moved a single step, only turning to block the next attack. A sharp light cleaved past Erden and parted an antler off his helmet. Luckily, his beast was in human form; if not for that, his neck in Prielapos form might have been sliced through. Was it desperation? Oscar felt Lelith's attacks get faster and heavier. No, he knew his power waned. The four shared senses between Avril, Oscar, Demon, and Erden via Resonance kept them in the fight.

'We exhausted ourselves far too much just to tear off her Ancestral Mark. After that, we had been fighting a genuine Grade Nine with her full original Ein, barely a fifth of ours remaining. She's wasting time, waiting for us to drop first.' Demon said calmly, as if unbothered, but his words failed to reciprocate the sentiment. '...we might die here.'

'No. There is a way. One way. Something she would never expect.' Avril rushed in and covered her long staff in a giant wooden shield, given form by her Integration. Her golden pupils stared dead at Lelith but flashed a hint of apology at Oscar, a small smile gracing her lips. He widened his eyes as the link of Resonance passed on her determination and the 'way' she spoke of. Part of him wanted to stop her, but he had no other idea, his limit approaching in a matter of seconds.

Oscar, Demon, and Erden poured in the remaining of their Eirin and rampaged, battering all they could muster on the steely fort that was Lelith. Avila and Serit seemed to pick up on their frantic use of Ein and redoubled their efforts, using up their reserves. Avril strode past and stomped her foot down, swinging the wooden shield that covered her twice over. Lelith disregarded her strike and casually swung her scythe to block it. Oscar clenched his teeth and fists and readied for the final strike, knowing the opportunity would come.

Through the Resonance, he felt Avril's pain as the Reis coursed past her weak heart and gathered into Eirin on the hull of her shield, bashing on Lelith's casual swing. He shed a few tears as Lelith staggered, knocked off balance, the indifferent eyes of the cruel master slightly widening and snapping to Oscar. Demon became nearly transparent, his sword pushing one wing. Erden rammed against the other, holding it in place. Her other hand, still a reach away, gripped tightly and motioned the scythe in place to swing down. However, Oscar and the others moved in perfect tandem, matching the timing to the exact moment of Avril's attack.

Oscar risked it all on that, shedding tears of blood at the agony his wife suffered from the backlash of Reis. Lelith probably never expected such a heavy blow; in fact, each of her strikes, no matter against the weak or powerful, matched them perfectly as if she played a great symphony of precision, conserving power at every moment. Well, his wife had a tendency to be the one that tore apart the expectations of others. Off-balance, spells cut and burned, the one free arm too far to counter in that instant, she had no more cards.

He reached her first, his fist already closing in on the one weakness, the chink in the armor that Santen sacrificed himself to open in Lelith's defenses. Avril paved the way with a risky blow, and Santen planted the target where his fist drove in. Lelith shuddered as Oscar pushed his fist into her neck, green blood gushing out of the widening wound. Her eyes darted in a frenzy between her hand and Oscar's, an unexpected reaction.

"Ah, so you can feel fear. Welcome to the fear of death." In the end, she showed emotion. Oscar spun his hip and pushed onward with a great roar, letting out his rage at the pain Avril had suffered in the past and now. His fist forced itself through the hardened flesh of Meture's shard and tore off half her neck, green blood flooding the gap. The armor on his arm shattered, and he dropped to his knees. Demon disappeared, the white sword clattering to the floor. Stripped of his armor, Erden fell to the floor, bearing deep cuts on his body. Lelith gurgled and held her neck, leaking blood. Oscar smiled and gave her one final look, "How is it? The taste of your own fear?"

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